1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to trailer hitches and more specifically to a trailer hitch capable of imparting forward and rearward movement to the towed vehicle relative to the towing vehicle.
2. Prior Art
For many years the harvesting of tobacco has been a manual operation. The tobacco must be harvested at a particular time in the growing season and the leaves of the plant ripened different times. The leaves ripen progressively from the bottom to the top of the stalk thereby necessitating five or six successive passes through the field to remove the ripened leaves. Such manual harvesting methods required a great deal of manpower which has become increasingly scarce and more expensive in recent years.
The first type of mechanical tobacco harvester consisted primarily of a frame upon which the leaf primers would ride through the field as they manually removed the leaves and place them in various containers.
In recent years various other types of mechanical tobacco harvesters were developed wherein the harvester would straddle the row of tobacco plants and a rotating defoliator would strip the lower leaves from the plant onto a conveyor mechanism for transfer into a suitable receptacle. In several of these prior art harvesters a conveyor mechanism would be located on opposite sides of the row of tobacco plants and the leaves would be conveyed rearwardly into a pair of boxes mounted on the rear of the trailer. Other types of tobacco harvesters would convey the tobacco leaves rearwardly onto a transversely operable conveyor which would deposit the tobacco leaves into a wagon or box being pulled independently alongside the tobacco harvester.
In the co-pending application of Taylor et al, Ser. No.667,321, filed Mar. 16, 1976, a tobacco harvester is disclosed wherein a pair of defoliating means operate on opposite sides of the row of tobacco plants and the leaves which are harvested by the defoliator means are conveyed rearwardly and upwardly by a pair of parallel conveyor belt systems. The harvested leaves are deposited onto a transverse conveyor belt which in turn deposits the leaves into a tobacco curing box being carried by a trailer coupled to the harvester for movement alongside the harvester. The transverse conveyor belt may be shifted laterally so that the leaves will be deposited into the trailer when the harvester is straddling the first or second row of tobacco adjacent the fifth middle along which the tractor and trailer move. A hitch is disclosed in said co-pending application which will reciprocate the trailer forwardly and rearwardly relative to the harvester to insure the even distribution of tobacco leaves lengthwise of the box.